Google CEO Sundar Pichai image : Google

According to documents filed at Dutch Chamber of Commerce, Google moved 19.9 billion euros ($22.7 billion) via a Dutch shell company to tax haven Bermuda in 2017, as part of an arrangement that enables it lessen its foreign tax bill. This amount moved through Google Netherlands Holdings BV was about €4 billion more than in the previous year.

This tax strategy commonly dubbed as the “Double Irish arrangement” is legal and has been used majorly by U.S. multinationals since the 1980s. It’s known to be largest tax avoidance tool with an estimated $100 billion in foreign profits shielded annually from taxation through this method.

The Googleplex campus image : Google

Under pressure from the U.S. and European Union, Ireland which had been a tax haven for this purpose phased out the arrangement in 2014, ending Google’s tax advantages by 2020. Google Netherlands Holdings BV paid €3.4 million in taxes in the Netherlands last year, on a gross profit of €13.6 million euros, filings showed.

“We pay all of the taxes due and comply with the tax laws in every country we operate in around the world,” Google said in a statement. “Google, like other multinational companies, pays the vast majority of its corporate income tax in its home country, and we have paid a global effective tax rate of 26 percent over the last ten years.”

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